Meditation

All you can hear is water. The continuous crashing that runs all sound into one long stream of flowing noise seems to fold around you. You close your eyes, and your world becomes the rush of falling water and the smell of the pond beneath it. When open, you become aware of the creepers cascading with the water and the rough stone etched over the ages into a regal subterranean lake.

If you step into the small alcove beside the basin, you are met with an almost alien environment. The chill leaves the air and the sound of the waterfall fades, replaced with the roiling boil of the pool before you. For it is in this small part of the volcano that the steam vents, forming a natural hot spring of amazing quality. You sink into the warm, frothing waters and feel the years melt away. Your worries and cares seem to evaporate in the swirling mists of this secluded alcove.

With sound dampened by the moist walls of gray stone, you begin to hear the sounds of distorted laughter and speech from the main cavern. Looking out, you see no one there. The revelers are still off down the cold passages, their voices echoing through the years like the etching of the rocks. In the dim light of nearby fire and sun pouring down the waterfall, you leave the bubbling spring to contemplate the power of the cascading water. The tenacity of the vegetation springing from solid rock in the sporadic sunlight and humid atmosphere of these all-encompassing caverns. The presence of the spectral laughter still echoing through the passages into eternity.